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The Summer 2016 edition of the IWA Ipswich Branch Newsletter
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IPSWICH BRANCH NEWSLETTER
NO. 133 JUNE 2016
ANGLIAN CUTTINGS
IWA Ipswich Branch Committee
YOUR COMMITTEE
Chairman - Rod Mansel
[email protected] 07951 682048
Secretary - Carole Green
Treasurer - Spencer Greystrong
[email protected] 07597 862793
Membership - Dale Green
[email protected] 07850 960635
River Gipping Trust - Gerry Crease
[email protected] 07747 840982
Welcome to the latest edition of the IWA Ipswich Branch
newsletter. This edition is shorter than previous editions
due to the lack of a Newsletter Editor so if anyone is
feeling creative and would like to take on the role, please
let anyone on the committee know.
The cover photograph shows Etruria Lock on the Trent and Mersey
taken during our coach trip this year.
There are still a number of vacant positions on the committee and the committee
would welcome any volunteers and offers of help to fill them. These are Minute
Secretary, Social Secretary, Broads Forum Representative and
Newsletter/Anglian Cuttings Editor. If you think that you can help in any of
these areas, please contact the Chairman or Secretary.
CHAIRMAN’S CORNER
Welcome to Anglian Cuttings. The Branch is
staying afloat and trying to keep on top of the many and varied activities
throughout the region, from keeping an eye on the Broads Authority Draft
Local Plan to Ipswich Borough Council’s plans for the Sugar Beet Factory
site. In between we try to put on a varied social programme, some reports of
which can be found in this issue. We were fortunate to have an IWA Trustee
attend our last committee meeting to give us some background to the changes
to the Articles of Association.
This Anglian Cuttings contains articles on the Ipswich Branch Coach Trip to
Trentham Gardens, Churnet Valley Railway and the National Memorial
Arboretum and the Branch Annual Dinner.
DATES for your DIARY
10th September 2016 Walk along the River Gipping Path
14th October 2016 Talk – The Stowmarket Gun Cotton Explosion
11th November 2016 Fish & Chip Supper
2nd December 2016 Quiz night Questions by Gerry Crease
10th February 2017 Annual General Meeting
25th March 2017 IWA Annual Dinner
All events except the walk and Annual Dinner will be held in the Needham Market Community Centre
at 7.30 pm
The Committee will be considering possible future events
and details will be advised in due course and will be posted
on the website. If members have any suggestions or are
happy to assist in the arrangements, please contact the
Secretary.
RESTORATION
River Gipping Trust
The River Gipping Trust has now acquired a pre-owned three tonne
dumper truck which is being used in conjunction with the mini digger at
Pipps Ford to great effect. The old weir has been renovated and a new
earth bridge built to provide a safer passage way along the footpath.
The photograph shows the
bridge formed using a concrete
pipe recycled from the bywash.
and create more mud to be
moved around.
The RGT have also been busy
training more volunteers to use
the new dumper truck in
preparation for more work on
the bywash at Pipps Ford.
As always, volunteers are welcome every Wednesday, and most
second Saturdays of every month.
WORKING PARTY DATES
Working Parties are held by the River Gipping Trust from 0900 to 1700 every
Wednesday and on the second Saturday of each month.
For further information and to confirm dates contact Martin Bird Tel:
01394 380765 Email: [email protected]
IWA Ipswich Branch – Weekend Away 14-15th
May 2016
Yet another very enjoyable weekend for 36 people from our Branch and another two from the Ipswich Maritime Trust. The weekend started for Paul our driver at 4.00am when he left home to collect our coach and give it a full checkover before making his first pickup from Ambrose Avenue at 7.00am. By 7.45am following our stop at Copdock we were still two people short. Pete took a train to Stoke (his car broke down on the way) and Rod met us at Elmswell. We then headed to our first refreshment stop at 9.00 (needed to comply with the law dealing with driver’s hours). To try something different I had made arrangements with Frost’s Garden Centre in Huntingdon to offer tea, coffee and a full English should anyone want one! I can recommend this stop to anyone travelling North. Turn off the A14 at the Brampton turning.
We hit the road again at 9.45, arriving at the Trentham Estate around mid-
day. As we pulled into the car park it was pretty obvious that Trentham is an
extremely popular place to go! We had visions of the place being packed out but nothing could be further from the truth. The Trentham Estate covers 725
acres and includes the award-winning Trentham Gardens, Shopping Village, Garden Centre, Monkey Forest and Aerial Extreme. The gardens won BBC’s Countryfile Garden of the Year 2015 award. There is more than enough room for everyone. You can see some more pictures of the Estate on our web page.
We left the Estate at 5.30 and soon
arrived at our hotel. Some of you may remember the government sponsored National Garden Festivals in the 1980’s. Stoke on Trent hosted the second one in 1986 which was based around the original Josiah Wedgewood factory at Etruria and the Trent & Mersey Canal. Our hotel was near the canal and Wedgewood’s original home at Etruria has been incorporated into the hotel leisure centre.
The hotel was extremely busy with 3 coaches and a wedding but the staff coped admirably with the numbers. A few of us took advantage of the hotel swimming pool but unfortunately it closes at 8.00pm at weekends. I’m sorry to say that one of our party suffered a
fall in the hotel and ended up in hospital with a broken leg but she is now recovering well and has arrived back at home.
On Sunday our first point of call was the Churnet Valley Railway. We were due to pick up our train at Cheddleton but with a narrow bridge and 7.5 tonne weight limit on one side and a low bridge on the other, Paul had to drop us off at the top of the road, reverse and drive of to Froghall to meet us
at the far end. His son, Nathan, clearly has no confidence in his dad’s driving as he was convinced his dad was about to hit various walls and vehicles. He didn’t, by the way.
The railway runs through an area known locally as ‘Little Switzerland’ and it was easy to see why this should be. It’s one of the most scenic preserved railways that I’ve ever travelled. The railway has a very refreshing attitude to its visitors. We were allowed to wander at will around the workshops and nobody tried to tell us how dangerous it was! We boarded the 11.15 train to Froghall where I had arranged for our group to have tea and buns in the refreshment room. It was noticeable that one or two of our party managed to get a very large scone with lashings of jam and cream to go with their cup of tea!
We left the railway around 12.45 for our journey to the National Memorial
Arboretum arriving around 1.45. I had arranged for an introductory talk in the
Chapel by one of the many volunteers followed by a trip round the memorial
gardens on the road train. He explained to us how The idea for the
Arboretum was conceived by David Childs in 1988. David believed that it
would form a living
tribute to service
men and women
for future
generations to
reflect upon and
enjoy. The
Arboretum was
officially opened on
16 May 2001.It is
part of the Royal British Legion group of charities. It covers 140 acres and has
over 50,000 trees.
Although the majority of memorials are dedicated to members of the
services there are many that commemorate civilian organisations such as the
Boys Brigade, the RNLI and SANDS (Stillbirth and NeoNatal Death Society).
After our guided tour of
the arboretum on the
road train we adjourned
to the restaurant for
afternoon tea – and
what a tea it was!
Sandwiches, cakes, fruit,
scones, jam and cream
all served on 3 tier cake
stands and
accompanied by tea and
coffee. Some people
weren’t able to finish so plastic ‘doggie’ bags were produced by the staff.
We left the arboretum at 4.30pm with a stop at Cambridge Services for Paul’s
compulsory 45-minute break. Our final stop was my house around 8.30pm.
Reports from our group suggest that a good time was had by all and where
are we going next year? Watch this space.
Message from an IWA Trustee
We were lucky enough to have Paul Strudwick who is an IWA Trustee and
also Chairman of London Branch of the IWA attend our last committee
meeting and he wrote the following:
Let me introduce myself. I am Paul Strudwick one of your trustees and
chairman of the London Region. So you may ask am I writing an article for the
Ipswich Branch magazine. As you may be aware Eastern Region has not had a
Region Chairman for some time so when I had the opportunity to meet your
committee recently I agreed to write something from “Head Office”
perspective about the work of IWA nationally.
I thought you might be interested in some
of the work of the National Navigation
Committee, sometime referred to as Nav-
com, and the campaigning they do on your
behalf. Looking at a typical meeting the
committee deals with a huge range of
subjects from Carbon Monoxide dangers in
boats to the Department for Transport’s
Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy
consultation and our policy on Waterborne
Freight. Perhaps the most important campaign we have run since that which
resulted in the formation of Canal and River Trust (C&RT) is to have the
Environment Agency (EA) Navigations transferred to them. When I have been
out and about some people have questioned the need for this campaign as,
at present, there is little sign of a problem except for a back log of dredging.
They also point out that the EA staff are doing a very good job keeping their
navigations working. These are very good points with which I agree totally.
But under the surface all is not well. There are disturbing reports that on the
Thames it is impossible to get a boat over 60 foot beyond Oxford due to
siltation on bends. In East Anglia all work has stopped on the Fenland link. In
my opinion we have been lucky so far, when there is a major failure, such as a
lock, EA will struggle to find the money to carry out repairs. This will result in
a protracted closure or even an attempt to abandon the navigation. Our
campaign is proactive, trying to prevent the worst happening, and it will be a
good foundation when we have to react to a major crisis sometime in the not
too distant future.
Another campaign we have been running is to look at the condition of
winding points across the canal network. We have produced a “standard”
design for a winding hole to be used by restoration groups or where new
ones are needed. We have also carried out a survey of the condition of
winding points across the country. In London, I recently met C&RT to discuss
the situation in the area. We quickly established that there was not a
definitive list of official winding points for the London Region. IWA and C&RT
sat down together to produce a list of winding points for the area. We used a
number of sources and where three or four of them agreed there was a
winding point it was added to the list. Secondly where two sources agreed
and IWA and C&RT felt a turning point would be useful at that point it was
added and finally where there were several turning points in a short pound or
close together on a longer pound we chose the best/safest one to be the
official Winding Point. We hope to be able to publish this list in the near
future so that both organisations can monitor the condition and ensure that
these winding points remain available in the future. Across the country
branches have been asked to carry out similar reviews with C&RT and, where
appropriate, other navigation authorities.
If you would like to know more about national campaigns of think you would
like to get more involved, please get in touch.
Paul Strudwick
Chair Person
London Region
Twitter Paul@greenboater
Ipswich Branch Annual Dinner
The Branch Annual Dinner organised by Gerry Crease and Patti his wife was
held at the Cedars Hotel Stowmarket on the 5th March 2016. We were
treated to a lovely meal which everyone enjoyed and our thanks go to Gerry
and Patti for their faultless organisation.
At the end of the meal the Chairman’s Award was presented to Chard
Wadley in recognition of his many years’ service to the Ipswich Branch in
various roles but mainly as Chairman.
Unfortunately, the photographs of the presentation were eaten by gremlins,
so the photograph below was taken at Froghall Station during the coach trip!
The current Chairman Rod Mansel presenting the Chairman’s Award to
Chard Wadley.
IWA Waterways Triathlon
I have been asked to publicise this event. The flyer can be found below.
IWA Waterways Restoration Raffle
In August, IWA will launch the third Waterways Restoration Raffle. You will find a book of raffle tickets enclosed with the Autumn edition of Waterways Magazine. Last years raffle was won by an Ipswich Branch member so I hope you will support the raffle again this year. The money raised will go towards restoration efforts across the system.You can also nominate a specific restoration project on each ticket you buy. For example you could ask for some of the proceeds of the raffle to go to the River Gipping Trust or perhaps the North Walsham & Dilham Canal Trust. The more nominations a particular project receives the greater the proportion of profits that will go to that project.
USEFUL WEBSITES
IWA Head Office - http://www.waterways.org.uk
Waterway Recovery Group - http://www.wrg.org.uk
River Gipping Trust - http://rivergippingtrust.org.uk
River Stour Trust - http://www.riverstourtrust.org
East Anglian Waterways Association –http://www.eawa.co.uk
Aylsham Navigation - http://aylsham-navigation.norfolkparishes.gov.uk
River Waveney Association -http://groupspaces.com/RiverWaveneyTrust
pages/our-aims
IWA Peterborough Branch - http://www.iwapeterborough.org.uk
The Broads Society - http://www.broads-society.org.uk
The Australian Canal Society - http://www.auscanal.org.au/
The Canal & River Trust - http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/
DEFRA Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs -
http://www.defra.gov.uk
The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distribution company limited by guarantee.
Registered Office; Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. HP5 1WA
Tel: 01494 783453 Web: www.waterways.org.uk
Registered in England No. 612245. Registered as a Charity No. 212342